Raise your hand if you’ve heard that statement before. I’ve heard it before -- in restoration ecology talks, classes and papers. I thought it was a restoration cliche. But when I asked on twitter, I was surprised that more than 70 percent of respondents (thanks for responding, respondents!) hadn’t yet heard this quote. So, what does it mean? Where does it come from? And what the heck is an acid test?

​[Nate writes...] Before my post on Climate Change and wildfires, I wanted to discuss the #ThomasFire burning in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. This fire has burned several friends’ homes, threatens many more and has a personal meaning for me as I recently lived in Santa Barbara for 7 years. I’ll briefly describe my thoughts on the #ThomasFire from the Past, Present, and Future.

​[Nate writes…] This is the second post of a monthly series where I discuss things I observe in my life/travels that are likely to change in the future either fully or partially due to our changing climate. Climate is a more complicated word than most people realize. It’s the weather conditions in a place over a long period of time. “It’s raining today” or “Last week was really hot!” are examples of changing weather, while “Hurricanes have become a lot stronger over the past century” or “Wine country in Oregon is going to change dramatically in the next century” are examples of changing climate.

Nate Emery is currently a post-doc in the department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and conducts research in plant ecophysiology, biology education, and faculty professional development. Follow him on Twitter @FoggyIdeas or check out his website for more information.

I think that it’s usually fairly difficult for us to imagine what will happen in the future with climate change.​ Especially since we humans have a particularly hard time grasping concepts related to large changes over long periods of time. What does “1 million years ago” even mean? What was even happening then? Apparently, our common ancestor with Neanderthals was roaming around. Humans were definitely not around yet.

Or: A sack of chemicals by any other name would smell as sweet (1).
​[Andy writes... ] Do you want safe food? Do you eat chemicals? How do you decide what’s natural, and is “natural” a good indicator of safety? What’s a chemical anyway? Is a banana still natural if it contains 2-hydroxy-3-methylethyl?

Nate Emery is currently a post-doc in the department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and conducts research in plant ecophysiology, biology education, and faculty professional development. Follow him on Twitter @FoggyIdeas or check out his website for more information.

​[Nate writes...]​ ​

​Dear Bill Nye and company,

I’ve wanted to write about your new show “Bill Nye Saves the World” for some time now. I am a huge fan of your old show ("Bill Nye the Science Guy," 1993-1998). It was original, engaging, and inspired scientific curiosity in a whole generation.

​Your new show is obviously targeting a different audience and has a very different tone and approach.

To be honest, upon watching the first few episodes, I was immediately turned off.

I was invited to write a blog post for the Ecological Society of America about my recent experiences in Washington, D.C. with my fellow Graduate Student Policy Award winners. I had an amazing time and wanted to share my post with you. -Anna

[Anna writes...] As a fifth year Ph.D. student, I spend a lot of time thinking about my future. I adore science and have loved being a part of the ecology community, but working as a researcher has always left me wanting something more. While conducting my graduate research, I’ve come to value my distractions in teaching biology to non-majors, volunteering at science outreach events, and writing for public audiences. I’ve found that I both enjoy and excel at communicating science to diverse audiences, and I hope to make a career of it. I applied to the ESA GSPA in hopes of getting my feet wet in a new sector of science communication: science policy. I joked to my friends that this 3-day DC visit would be the deciding factor for whether my career ambitions would lie in policy rather than a more traditional public science outreach role. I was not disappointed.

Carina Baskett is a Ph.D. candidate in Michigan State University's Department of Plant Biology and Program in Ecology, Evolutionary Behavior, and Biology. I've wanted to write a speciation post for some time, and decided it would be more fun to ask an evolutionary biologist! Learn more about Carina's work at her website or follow her on Twitter @carinaplant. -Anna

[Carina writes...] There are over 22,000 species of trees in the American tropical forests. In just 15 patches of forest, each about the size of two football fields, scientists catalogued over 1,000 tree species in Yasuní National Park in Ecuador, more than the 620 tree species native to all of the US and Canada.​These are the numbers that blow my mind and get me excited about trying to understand the origins of biodiversity, especially in the tropics. I have good company— I think about 30% of ecologists and evolutionary biologists start talks with a slide full of colorful, beautiful organisms, and say that the ultimate goal of their research is to understand where all this diversity comes from.